Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandra Foster.
Alexandra, an American holding dual citizenship with Italy, was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and now lives full-time in London.
Educated in Boston, Italy and London, Alexandra’s voracious appetite for travel, new cultures, and the jet set lifestyle continues to inspire her today. She began her career working for the Italian Trade Commission in New York City and then pursued her interest in fashion at Bloomingdale’s where she headed up their women’s couture department. Following that, she spent over five years at Puma International in Boston, where she traveled the world scouting the latest trends and creating new ranges of lifestyle footwear.
In 2011, she began authoring Destinations Perfected, the now highly successful food, travel and lifestyle blog with a dedicated readership. Longing to switch gears and tap into her love for interior design, Alexandra was then headhunted to London where she successfully launched a brand new range of furnishing fabrics for the quintessentially British brand Liberty.
In 2013, Alexandra decided to harness her entrepreneurial spirit and the inspiration accrued from decades of traveling to launch her own cushion line. Driven by the belief that everyone should be surrounded by beauty on a daily basis, Alexandra’s dream is to dress the most glamorous interiors in the world with her stunning creations.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Entrepreneurship is never a smooth road. There is so much to learn about founding a company that it often becomes a long game of trial and error. When you’re first starting out you end up wearing many hats as well. From accounting to admin to IT, marketing, PR, networking and sales, you learn pretty quickly how to do everything on your own until you earn enough to hire the professionals!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I own a luxury throw pillow company. The silk is printed in panels at one of the most highly regarded mills in Lake Como, Italy. It is a mill that all of the biggest fashion houses and furnishing fabrics brands use as well, so the quality and feel are just stunning. The silk panels are then taken down the road to a small atelier where Italian seamstresses entirely hand sew the pillows adding the cotton lining, zipper, care labels and the hand braided trim from Bologna. Each pillow takes several hours to make and is truly an artisanal product.
Motifs and designs are individually and thoughtfully created by me, all of which are directly inspired by my world travels. Selected either for their intricate pattern details and the complexity of their color combinations or their classic geometric elegance, the designs underscore my belief that luxury begins at home.
What sets us apart is the fact that our product is still made by hand by skilled artisans in Italy.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My Head of Design, who has been with me since this company was just an idea in my head. I could not have traveled this road without her. She spends countless hours getting exactly the right scale for our designs, perfecting color combinations, and working tirelessly to come up with new patterns and graphics that lend themselves to interiors. I am truly blessed that the universe threw us together.
Pricing:
- Each cushion retails for $295
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alexandradfoster.com
- Email: alexandra@alexandradfoster.com
- Instagram: @alexandradfoster
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luxurybeginsathome/
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